2. Sites for passive recreation (aesthetic, psychological, therapeutic opportunities)
3. Cultural/environmental heritage
4. Educational resource
5. Sand and minerals for extraction (consumptive use)
6. Filter for pollutants
7. Retention area for groundwater
8. Ecological niche for plants adapted to dynamic conditions
9. Habitable substrate for invertebrates
10. Refuge areas (e.g., for plovers, rabbits)
11. Nest or incubation sites
12. Food for primary consumers
13. Food for higher trophic levels (scavengers, predators, humans)
14. Synergistic benefits of multiple habitat types (e.g., corridors)
15. Intrinsic value.
The greatest value perceived by most managers is the protection dunes provide
against flooding and erosion. Other values can be achieved through alternative
designs for creating or modifying dunes, including providing niches for flora,
habitable substrate and refuge areas for fauna, and nest sites. Dunes can also have
site-specific value, such as sources of groundwater. In many locations, the resource
base provided by the dunes has been lost through shorefront development, and
human efforts are required to restore it.
The term ‘‘restoration’’ implies that attempts have been made to recover the
form, function, and species inventory existing prior to human modification. Dunes
built primarily to increase the level of protection from storm flooding and erosion
are rarely restored because the landforms are built and maintained as static features
in an attempt to protect against natural processes rather than respond to them.
Nevertheless, most dune-building projects can accomplish some restoration goals
if construction and management practices are made more compatible by accepting
more natural features and greater mobility (Nordstrom et al. 2011).
Restoration efforts must be based on ecological, geomorphological and social
criteria to maximize the goods and services dunes can provide. Steps in restoring
dunes where they have been eliminated in developed areas involve:
1. Getting stakeholders to accept dunes as an alternative to the human-modified
environments that have replaced them
2. Creating the basic landforms where they have been eliminated or increasing the
size of truncated forms
3. Allowing these newly created or modified landforms to function like natural
dunes by allowing some portions of them to be dynamic
4. Controlling subsequent negative human actions
5. Favoring dune evolution through time using adaptive management strategies.
Adaptive management, with continued human input, is critical where space is
restricted and long-term erosion continues. Sustainability of natural features in
developed areas requires that humans act as intrinsic agents of landform change.
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K. F. Nordstrom and N. L. Jackson
3. Cultural/environmental heritage
4. Educational resource
5. Sand and minerals for extraction (consumptive use)
6. Filter for pollutants
7. Retention area for groundwater
8. Ecological niche for plants adapted to dynamic conditions
9. Habitable substrate for invertebrates
10. Refuge areas (e.g., for plovers, rabbits)
11. Nest or incubation sites
12. Food for primary consumers
13. Food for higher trophic levels (scavengers, predators, humans)
14. Synergistic benefits of multiple habitat types (e.g., corridors)
15. Intrinsic value.
The greatest value perceived by most managers is the protection dunes provide
against flooding and erosion. Other values can be achieved through alternative
designs for creating or modifying dunes, including providing niches for flora,
habitable substrate and refuge areas for fauna, and nest sites. Dunes can also have
site-specific value, such as sources of groundwater. In many locations, the resource
base provided by the dunes has been lost through shorefront development, and
human efforts are required to restore it.
The term ‘‘restoration’’ implies that attempts have been made to recover the
form, function, and species inventory existing prior to human modification. Dunes
built primarily to increase the level of protection from storm flooding and erosion
are rarely restored because the landforms are built and maintained as static features
in an attempt to protect against natural processes rather than respond to them.
Nevertheless, most dune-building projects can accomplish some restoration goals
if construction and management practices are made more compatible by accepting
more natural features and greater mobility (Nordstrom et al. 2011).
Restoration efforts must be based on ecological, geomorphological and social
criteria to maximize the goods and services dunes can provide. Steps in restoring
dunes where they have been eliminated in developed areas involve:
1. Getting stakeholders to accept dunes as an alternative to the human-modified
environments that have replaced them
2. Creating the basic landforms where they have been eliminated or increasing the
size of truncated forms
3. Allowing these newly created or modified landforms to function like natural
dunes by allowing some portions of them to be dynamic
4. Controlling subsequent negative human actions
5. Favoring dune evolution through time using adaptive management strategies.
Adaptive management, with continued human input, is critical where space is
restricted and long-term erosion continues. Sustainability of natural features in
developed areas requires that humans act as intrinsic agents of landform change.
18
K. F. Nordstrom and N. L. Jackson